Saturday, November 29, 2008

Thursday, November 27, 2008

Tonight, I had a couple friends over to watch a movie. In the spirit of the season we chose to watch A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving. The fascinating part about this episode was the incorporation of Franklin, the only black character in the world of Charlie Brown. If you look him up on wikipedia, there are references to Franklin being Schulz's manifestation of political opinion against segregation. However, certain things do seem to catch one's eye in the 1973 special A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving. Notably, Franklin dresses in a rather loud pair of striped trousers, plays on a baseball team (the jackie robinson effect), and greets charlie brown with low-five handshakes. what's wrong with this picture?

Tuesday, November 18, 2008

So, tonight was the night of the USC acoustic cafe where my good friend and fellow musician Cayla Fralick played a wonderful set. We've been discussing her doing guest vocals on the the current demo album I'm recording - Success to the British Navy, under the Moniker Thoreau.

Another great thing that happened tonight is that my good friend David, who runs the SCene SC music aggregator blog, has enlisted me into the organization's staff. This means I get business cards... for truth. If you're in a band and looking to sell ad space on the site itself, hit David up.

Unfortunately, I doubt I will be attending the Copeland show tomorrow at New Brooklyn Tavern, good journalism grades are a primary achievement. It's still sure to be awesome though.

Sunday, November 9, 2008

So tonight on flip the script, we're playing a special funraiser show that invloves bakari playing an hour set of Taking Back Sunday, and me playing an hour of Bright Eyes. It's probably the only time we'll ever be able to play top 40 albums and material so If you love wither of these bands, or both, be sure to tune in to flip da script radio tonight.

Wednesday, October 29, 2008

You've probably heard of this campaign already, the one about moveon.org sending personalized videos to people by request of their friends. These videos feature a fake news reporter saying that a certain individual (Your name) is responsible for Barack Obama for losing the election. I received one of these e-mails the other day and it's extremely well done. Now here's a question... will this actually increase voter registration? I highly doubt it. First off, I think it's improbable that their tactics of humor fueled actually would convince someone bitter or lazy enough not to vote to correct such behavior. Who is the ass hat who came up with this? Do they even realize that the reason why people do not vote might be because they are not registered? If so, this campaign was planned at an unfortunate time, because registering to vote has already hit the deadline? Apparently is within keeping of moveon.org's reputation of wasting money... a la "General Betray-Us" ads that were run in the NY Times and created such controversy they had to be withdrawn weeks after they were run for blasphemous content. I like spending money too moveon, but at least on things that are practical.

Sunday, October 19, 2008

I've been ready for Halloween since February, and want to have one of those lucid halloween memories where something spooky, unpredictable happens... something that feels like it should be in one of those feel good halloween specials from Home Improvement or The Simpsons or even Sabrina The Teenage Witch.

I want something enjoyably terrifying, or delightfully dark... something like a walking skeleton telling crazy stories, a swamp man on turntables, or a mummy cruising in a Scion.

Saturday, October 11, 2008

The airports I've been too have always been cold, no matter what time of the year. I figured it must always have had something to do with the amount of air flow that comes through the terminal-they would crank up the AC on the hot days, and on cold days, heat would usually escape through the large pains of glass that separates the customers from the elements outside. after thinking back to a few science classes about how heat travels, I realized that my notions about airport climates could just not be true, so I decided to chalk it up to inability for airport employees to understand what it was like to be human at some point in their life. generally, working in some establishment related tot the airline industry has a de-moralizing quality to it, almost as if Satan himself laid the blue-prints for every tarmac, every baggage carousel, and most certainly every airport express jamba juice.

I find that people who are employed by airports generally do not smile all that much, if ever. Whenever I buy a paper at the magazinery in an airport, I almost always leave a penny rather than take one, even if it means splitting a larger bill, mostly because I am utterly terrified that the man behind the counter will leap out at me with his tongue forked, scales shot-up, and hit eyes painfully crossed if I do not contribute to the giving end of the commercial taboo, its motto scawled on the edges a state lottery ash tray, that seems to find it's way into every airport cash register I ever been to in the states. So much to be abandoned. The Virginia State Lottery has a very distinct "take a penny" ash tray, as it is distinguished by its pool felt green finish and triangular mold. Since it is such a noticeable item, I can't help but notice it whenever I'm in a convenience store located in some other state than Virginia. For all I know, they're damn collector's items.

On a trip to Massachusetts I entered a Tom Thumb gas station vestibule to purchase a package of skittles. At the cashier, I noticed it; the Virginia Lottery's tray staring me straight in the middle of the forehead. Little things like this have a strange tendency to catch me off guard and lead to me asking pointless questions to people who really haven't got the time. "Any reason why you've got a Virginia ashtray?" I posed to a raisin faced man working the register. Such pointless questions get very charming, blunt responses: "For when my fucking cigarette gets ashes." At that time, I figured I better not mention that it really was for the "take a penny, leave a penny" policy, and decided that if I really wanted to get those skittles painlessly, I shouldn't question where this man ought to put out his smoke when it "got ashes." The poor phrasing he had chosen made it sound like cigarettes got diseases too.

Ever since the unpleasant experience in Massachusetts, I've become more cautious in my behavior, most effectively when I'm in Dulles or Reagan National. Only to add to my anxieties involving airports, I read an article in the washington post's outlook section the other day about how the ladder of the two locations will commence use of new security technology that will allow passengers' clothing to be seen through. Finally, now I can breathe easy knowing that my naked body will be seen the next time I choose to take a flight from the airport named after a president who probably approved the funding for the creation of such ludicrous technology as these peeping-tom scanners. All this for the sake of defending the homeland.

If it's any consolation to the reader, the article mentioned it was against Reagan National's "devout" costumer service policies if the examiners who operate the screenings came in contact with any customer who had been viewed in the nude. This raises to my mind, another potentially pointless question: Suppose an operator and a customer were to come in contact accidently, perhaps an unintentional rendezvous a la Cinnabon. (That seems altogether too hopeful, so more realistically: the airport's bathroom.) Now upon this encounter, what is that exact employee supposed to do? I came up with a list of preferable solutions:

- The employee apologizes with a complimentary "one free drink" waiver for the airport's Starbucks.

- You can opt out of the security screen, replaced by a relatively "easy going" frisking.